Large business mailers prepare and process various types of business mail utilizing high speed inserters to collate the sheets and stuff the same into envelopes. Invoices, advertisements for the purchase of goods and/or services, prepaid post cards as well as business reply envelopes are usually placed in the envelopes mailed by large business mailers. Recipients of business mailers mail may enclose a check and invoice and/or an advertisement order form in the business reply envelope and mail it to the business mailer. Recipients of business mailers mail may also supply information requested in the prepaid post card and mail the post card to the business mailer.
When the business mailer receives the business reply envelopes and/or prepaid or customer paid post cards from their customers, they process the mail in the order it is received. There is nothing on the mail piece that indicates to the business mailer the relative importance of the mail piece. For instance, an enclosed check for $1.00 is handled exactly the same as a check for $1,000,000.00.
As the prior art advanced, department identification codes in machine or human-readable format were placed on business reply envelopes and post cards. The identification codes increased the efficiency of the incoming mail sortation process. However, there was still no indication on the mail piece that indicated to the business mailer the relative importance of the mail piece. Thus, each department continued to process the mail in the order it was received.